After watching his side secure a third straight 3-0 Sky Bet Championship victory against Barnsley on Tuesday, Nigel Pearson had nothing but praise as the Foxes edged further clear of the play-offs.

A brace from Jamie Vardy and a seventh of the season for Danny Drinkwater did the damage on the night, leaving City 15 points clear of third placed Derby County with 12 fixtures remaining in the season.

The Foxes were imperious from start-to-finish against their relegation threatened hosts, something that was particularly pleasing for the manager with memories of last season’s 2-0 defeat at Oakwell still lingering.

After exorcising their Barnsley demons, the boss could find no fault with his flawless Foxes, said: “You go through our whole side and it is difficult to say that we had any weakness tonight. We were very good on an individual level.

“You can clearly see we have the quality of player at the Club to make the progression to promotion. There’s still a long way to go yet but we’re showing that we have the caliber to do that.

“When you consider the fixture there (Oakwell) last season, which was probably our low point, along with Derby away, it shows how more or less the same side have moved forward.”

The home side didn’t register an effort on target until late into the match, but it was the quality of his own team to restrict Danny Wilson’s Tykes that was the focus of Pearson’s praises after the match.

He added: “I think we were exceptionally good. We played exceptional football at times. As well as that we managed to control possession so didn’t allow them to hurt us on too many occasions.

“In the second half when they changed to 4-4-2 we took a little bit of time to get into it, but it would have been hard to dominate in the way that we did in the first half.

“We defend as a team and it’s always nice to keep a clean sheet. That reflects very positively on our defensive performance but I think the back five will be the first to recognize the contribution for the whole side.

“When a side is playing well, your first line of defence are your forwards and we always get a very positive contribution from them in that respect, as well as going forward.”